


Homemade

by Unpronounceable



Category: The Hollow (Cartoon)
Genre: Adam Has Anxiety, Adam is gay, Anxiety, Bad Parenting, But you can have a different kind of love for your friends you know how it is, Everyone Is A Little Into Everyone, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Poly, and feelings, not a relationship but people being cute and One Oblivious Pining Boy, slumber party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24430135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unpronounceable/pseuds/Unpronounceable
Summary: “Come home with me,” Adam says, and doesn’t realize he said it until Kai cocks his head at him.“I mean, sleep at my pace tonight. We have a guest bedroom, and you wouldn’t be imposing or anything, and I’m really sick of waffles, just- you can’t want to go back to your parents, right?”-------Adam contemplates his new life, new friendships, and how home feels.Kai and Mira just have fun.
Relationships: Adam & Kai & Mira (The Hollow)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	Homemade

**Author's Note:**

> Don't look at me, I have very specific weaknesses when it comes to my interests and I can't help myself.  
> 3+ people being in a team and being very important to one another is...one of them.
> 
> CW: parents being bad to their kid, nothing graphic

“Honey, I’m making waffles, do you want any?”

“That’s the third time you’re asking me.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Uh, no thanks, mom.”

Adam’s mom smiles, shrugs and steps back into the hallway, closing the door behind her. Adam continues to lay on his bed, splayed out like a starfish, staring up at the ceiling fan.

Even as his mom acts more and more like an AI- or, he just notices it more and more- he can’t really bring himself to be downright rude to her. Even in the virtual world, his mom’s glare is nothing to sneeze at.

Adam’s mouth quirks up at the corner, thinking about how he’s fought giant snails and sea serpents but can’t stare down his mom, but the grin falls when the unbidden thought of _'_ _well, she’s not really your mom'_ crosses his mind.

He’d meant it, when he said they should embrace this life; the only one they have, their only reality, even if it’s not exactly real. It was the only way he could think to cope with it, and yeah, Kai’s dramatic speech had helped.

Not just the words, so much, but Adam thought about Kai- this Kai, the one he knew- doing something like what Adam had been contemplating, like jumping off a cliff or laying down and waiting for one of the inevitable monsters to swoop in and tear him apart, and it made his heart drop.  
His non-heart in his digital body was real enough to stutter at the thought of Mira or Kai getting hurt or leaving, even if their counterparts in the outside world would be just fine. 

And, well. Adam wasn’t sold on his existence here being all that meaningful, but he can’t bring himself to invalidate the others. Even if they’re clones, copies, code- they’re important. 

He just really, _really_ doesn’t want any more waffles.

The AIs of his parents were not as accurate and finely tuned as his friends’ or his own. As the days passed, Adam started noticing recurring behaviour, odd replies that didn’t quite fit into the conversation, and other little ticks that would mean nothing to him if he was just stopping by here. Living with it though, day by day, in a house that didn’t really feel like home...

It grated, a little.

Adam takes a deep breath before jumping off the bed- literally jumping and landing with a perfect barrel roll, because he can, and why not use his powers? 

  
Him getting depressed like this isn’t going to help anything. He just needs a little reminder of what he has, instead of what he’s lost, so he takes off in a light jog towards Kai’s house. 

It’s still a bit amusing to see the juxtaposition between Kai’s house and the guy himself. With his shaggy hair and ill-fitting clothes, no one would assume Kai’s wallet probably weighs more than him. Maybe that’s the whole point, Adam thinks as he walks up to the door. Kai never likes to bring attention to how rich he is, and he’d mentioned something about being treated differently because of his wealth; it makes sense that he’d try to come off as ‘normal’ as possible at first glance. 

Doesn’t stop Adam from teasing him about it every now and then, though.

He barely makes it to the steps of the front door before he hears a resounding crash from inside- something breaking, someone yelling. 

Adam doesn’t make a conscious decision to break down the door, but it doesn’t give when he pulls the handle and there’s more yelling and _Kai is in there_ so he kicks at the beautiful imported wood until it shatters enough for him to get inside. 

“Kai?!” he yells- no answer.

His heartbeat’s thundering in his ears like a wardrum as he sprints towards the source of the noise. Something hits the ground from the direction of the kitchen and Adam swears he won’t need the Ishibo to _wreck_ whoever is in there if that sound was Kai.

Shoes squeak on the tiled floor before he makes it to the carpeted dining room, crunching over bits of broken glass. His fists are up before he can process what he’s seeing.

A man and a woman are standing a few feet apart, mildly out of breath. The woman has blood-red lipstick on and hair in a tight bun, except for a few frizzled hairs that stand out like she’s been clutching at her head. The hair is the same deep-red shade as Kai’s hair- his mother? Then the man might be his father, though Adam can’t find any resemblance between the man and Kai. Sure, their eyes might look similar, but the man is red-faced and his lips are quivering with rage, and he _glares_ at Adam like he wants to incinerate the boy. Kai, though impressive when he really gets mad, would never look like that.

The woman squints at him, then turns towards the man and throws her hands up.

“And who is _this_?!” 

“Oh _sure_ , assume it’s my doing, that’s all you ever do-”  
“You never _ask_ me before making decisions, who else would I-”

Adam’s raised fists lower awkwardly as the couple continues to shout at each other, and he takes a hesitant step back, but it only brings their attention back to him when he steps on more broken glass- what happened here?

The man snaps towards Adam, and listen- Adam’s been called paranoid, and his gut reactions were pretty intense even before the game and he tends to assume the worst of everyone, but the look of the man now advancing on Adam turns on his fight-or-flight within _seconds_.

Adam widens his stance and clenches his fists, preparing for trouble, but before he can, he hears a voice pipe up from behind him.

“Adam?” 

It bothers him to look away from the furious man in front of him, but Adam glances at Kai, relieved to see that his friend looks completely unharmed and mostly just confused. He can’t help a small smile, sure that everything was about to be explained and settled, but the man has a much more adverse reaction to Kai’s interfering.

“Oh, so it’s _you_ \- of course it is. Young man, _what_ did I say about being grounded?”

Kai’s reaction is instantaneous- he shrinks in on himself, glancing towards his father but not completely at him, and Adam’s smile drops. He’s glad he’s accidentally right between the two, because otherwise he’d have to step in between them, and Kai doesn’t like feeling babied but there’s no way Adam would just stand to the side right now. 

“Dad, I-”  
“ _What_ are the rules for when you’re grounded?”  
“Stay in my room. But-”  
  


The man takes a sharp, deep breath, turning away from Kai for a moment before turning back. He hasn’t said anything, but the effect is the same as if he’d screamed his head off- that furious, appalled inhale that means _you really fucked up and I’m being the good guy by not yelling right now but just you wait_. Kai’s eyes unfocus slightly, face going blank, but he snaps back into focus as his father rounds back on him, and Kai looks- scared, almost.

“Back _off_.” Adam pulls up to his full height just as the man stabs a threatening finger towards Kai, and doesn’t step back even as the man looms over him.

The man stops dead in his tracks, eyes focusing on Adam instead of Kai- good. Adam’s sure the man is about to grab him, hit him or something, but it’s only Kai who makes him falter in his human shield position when the latter whispers urgently right in Adam’s ear.

“Dude, no. _Not_ worth it.”

Kai’s hands grab his shoulders, they’re shaking, and Adam considers ignoring him in favour of showing that yelling blowhard how to be really threatening. An insistent tug convinces him otherwise- Kai would probably be mad if Adam decked his dad right in front of him.

“Kai, you can’t just let him-”

The woman interrupts them with a loud groan, and where her husband was tightly controlled like an elastic band about to snap, she seems to have already unfurled, hair falling out of the bun and lipstick starting to smear.

  
“Mordecai! Room, _now_. I do _not_ have the patience to deal with you right now, so help me god, just _go_.” 

She turns around with her head in her hands, walking towards a cabinet muttering about needing a drink. The man levels Adam and Kai with an accusative glare, then pokes Adam _hard_ in the chest with a sun-tanned finger. 

“I think you’d best leave right now, boy. Kai, I will have _words_ with you later.”

_Over my dead digital body_ , Adam wants to say, but Kai pulls on his shoulders without a word and Adam lets him. 

“Kai-”  
“Wait for me by the gates”, Kai whispers to him, before pushing him towards the front entrance. Adam gives him his best _you’re-joking-me_ face but Kai only shoos him away with his own _I-am-serious-just-do-it_ face _._

Just as Adam is leaving, he hears the shouting pick up again, and it takes a lot of willpower not to turn back and march Kai out of there himself.

He stands sullenly by the gates for maybe five minutes before he hears crackling fire above him, and seconds later Kai drops down next to him, stumbling minutely before leaning against the brick of his family’s front gates. Adam quickly scans his face to see if there’s- bruises, or something- but Kai seems fine.

“Hey there, handsome, come here often?”  
  


Adam makes sure to look unimpressed for a solid two seconds before his face does that thing where his eyes pinch and his eyebrows scrunch down. He can’t help it, he’s always been way too easy to read.

“Hey, you’re doing that thing with your eyes and eyebrows, quit it.”

“Kai, come on, that-” Wasn’t normal? Shouldn’t be brushed off? Was plenty of reason to do my worried face because now I’m worried?  
  
“What _was_ that?” Adam settles for, and Kai pushes himself off the brick wall, idly flicking fire from hand to hand. He’s doing to have an excuse to look away, Adam’s sure, or just to do something with his hands. 

“I don’t know, man, my parents argue. No biggie.”  
  


Adam frowns, standing closer to Kai, who leans away but doesn’t stop playing with fire.

  
“ _Yes_ , biggie. You let them talk to you like that?”

“They’re my parents. What am I gonna do, ground them back?”

Okay, fair, Adam’s pretty sure he couldn’t directly talk back to his parents either, but.

“Still. I- they shouldn’t get to treat you like that. Is it always like this?”

“Pretty much,” Kai says and starts walking down the street, slowly and still facing Adam as if silently telling him to follow, so Adam does. 

“Are you, uh….okay?” Adam prods after a few seconds of silence. He’s not as good with feelings as Mira is, and he wishes she was here, even just so Adam could make a face at her and know she was as pissed off as he was.

“It’s fine, man. They’ll be off on some cruise or something in a few days, it’s nothing compared to giant snails and dragons.”

“That doesn’t directly answer the question.”

“Yeah, well- whatever. You wanna go get donuts or something?”

  
  
Adam takes the dismissal for what it is, because Mira isn’t here to ask deeper and refuse to back down, and because Kai looks increasingly uncomfortable and because Adam doesn’t know what to say. Apologize? Try to comfort Kai? Offer to beat his dad up? 

In the end, all he does is eat donuts and listen to Kai talk about the String Theory, silently upset but putting on a face, and wondering for how long Kai has been doing the same.

\---

It’s turning to dusk when they finally leave the donut shop, Kai somehow still stuffing his face on what had to be his twelfth donut. Maybe he burned through calories really fast?

“Well, thanks for ditching with me, man. Your mom’s probably waiting for you, so.”

“Won’t you get in trouble for sneaking out?” Adam asks. If Kai gets yelled at for leaving his room when he’s grounded, Adam doesn’t want to imagine what leaving the house will get him.  
  


Kai, however, just shrugs and pops the last bit of donut into his mouth.

“Nah, I’m not supposed to leave my room. As long as the door’s shut, they won’t check in or anything until tomorrow afternoon, earliest.”

Adam doesn’t know if that’s worse, or better. Probably better, but something feels wrong about a parent sending their kid away and not bothering to check on them for hours on end. Kai is right, Adam’s mom is probably waiting- with the damn waffles, maybe, but at least Adam’s memory of his mother would wait for him to come home. 

“Come home with me,” Adam says, and doesn’t realize he said it until Kai cocks his head at him.

“I mean, sleep at my pace tonight. We have a guest bedroom, and you wouldn’t be imposing or anything, and I’m really sick of waffles, just- you can’t _want_ to go back to your parents, right?” 

Kai shrugs noncommittally, but doesn’t try to convince Adam that he’s excited to go back to his room and listen to the screaming downstairs. Good, because Adam thinks _he_ might start yelling at that point, and he has a feeling neither of them need that right now.

“It’ll be, like...a sleepover,” Adam finishes lamely. They’re a little old for sleepovers, maybe, but it makes Kai perk up and turn slowly towards Adam. “I’ve, uh...never had one of those,” he says, and Adam slumps a bit in relief of not needing to convince Kai any further.

  
He cocks his head towards the street on the right that will lead them to Adam’s place, and Kai follows wordlessly.

“...Dude, did you _break my door down_?”  
“I- I was concerned!”

It’s awkward at first, the walk to Adam’s house, but it’s not long until Kai is chattering away again. This time, they both seem to mean it when they laugh and banter.

\---

When they arrive at Adam’s house, Mira is already sitting at the kitchen table, eating waffles with strawberries and cream.

“H’wwo, Ad’m! N’ Gai!”

Adam stops dead in his tracks, and remembers the problem with having more than one good friend; he’s never had more than one good friend before and forgets about making plans with more than one person.

Mira liked to come over a lot, even before the game. Adam was an only child, so there was less of a fuss at his house, and Mira claimed his house was a good escape from her dads being ‘overly involved’ and her brother being ‘the poster child of Annoying Little Brothers’. Lately, she’d been feeling the same thing as Adam, with her family’s inorganic nature shining through. Pretending is something Mira refuses to do, more so than anyone Adam knows, and pretending like everything was back to normal was wearing her down.

She’d asked last night if she could hang out at dinner, and he’d said of course, and now she was here because they both could let themselves into each other’s place at will, now. 

But Kai needs him, right now, or at least Adam feels like he does. It’s probably just his Leadership Complex, as Mira calls it, that makes him feel like he needs to ensure everyone’s well-being all the time, but he promised Kai a sleepover when Kai has never had one and Adam knows he won’t sleep well, himself, if he sends Kai back to that house.

Adam’s mom, luckily, says something about a load of laundry and walks out of the kitchen, leaving Adam feeling like he’s messed everything up, but at least with one less audience.

He wasn’t always this bad about mistakes. He was never good, but after everything with Reeve, and the Hollow, and now the Hollow being all they have now, it’s gotten substantially worse. He _knows_ , deep down, that he’s being irrationally upset at himself, but he double-booked with both his friends and now he can’t make good on the promises he made to both of them.  
Kai will realize how unreliable and imperfect Adam is, and what if Mira feels like she’s being replaced? 

While Adam panics, Kai casually walks over to Mira and looks longingly at the plate of waffles.

“Hey, Mira. Are those waffles homemade?”  
“Didn’t you just eat a bunch of donuts?”  
  
Kai gasps dramatically, leaning away from her in shock, like an actor chewing the stage.

“How did _you_ know that?!”

“You smell like donuts,” Mira says and sniffs the air, not quite as theatrically but clearly indulging Kai. “And, also, I’m a witch.”

“What?! I vouched for you, you know!”

  
Mira laughs and looks at Adam, which he should probably use as his cue to start doing something other than standing there, and her smile fades, god _damn_ it now they can’t even have fun without him mucking things up.

“Adam, you alright?” Mira asks, prompting Kai to look his way too, and now there’s _four_ eyes on him and he needs to explain himself.

“I- uh, I…” he begins, and watches Kai look at Mira awkwardly while Mira stares at him intently and why does he have to be so easy to read, “I-I invited Kai to come sleep over here, since he’s- well- never, uh, had one. I’m- _sorry_ Mira, I totally forgot, yesterday…”

Mira opens her mouth to say something, but Kai interrupts loudly.

“Well, she can just join us, right? Oh- _ooh!_ My first _slumber party!_ Can we paint our nails?”  
  


Adam never knows, even now, if Kai tries to lighten the mood on purpose or if he really just has no filter and is really good at breaking the ice. It works, in any case; Mira’s face lights up as she looks at Kai, aghast. 

“You’ve never had a slumber party?! Oh, _Adam!_ This definitely takes priority over our hangout, good call! We need to get this guy some PJ’s and nail polish, _stat!_ ”

Mira, however, is definitely comforting Adam on purpose, and she’s not subtle about it.  
He doesn’t like to admit it, but it works. He feels his shoulders relax as Mira and Kai enthuse about the oncoming night, and wonders why the hell he would worry so much when he’s friends with the coolest people ever.

\---

They manage to find Kai some suitable nightwear, consisting of Adam’s shirt and Mira’s pyjama bottoms, while Mira borrows Adam’s old lounge pants, since Kai is borderline tiny and Mira at least has hips to hold her pants in place.

Kai excuses himself to change in the bathroom every time he tries something on, which Adam is grateful for because while Kai is truly one of Adam’s best friends, he’s still quite new, and Adam isn’t sure if he’s ready to see Kai strip right in his room.  
Mira, however, knows the drill, and wastes no time changing while talking to Adam. Maybe it’s just that his childhood friend in underwear doesn’t bother him at all after all those years.

Or maybe it’s just because he’s gay.

Adam also wastes no time, but he uses his differently. As soon as he hears the bathroom door lock as Kai goes to change, he turns frantically to Mira, who starts pulling out her pyjamas.

“Hey, so, I went to Kai’s house, and his parents were there.”  
“What a novel concept, Adam.”  
“I mean, it is! Have you ever actually seen that?”

  
Mira pauses with one leg in Adam’s old pants, considering.

“Well, no, actually. Okay, I’m intrigued, go on.”  
“Mira, they’re awful.”  
  
Mira, now successfully wearing pants, stops to give him a mildly shocked look, and he keeps going.

“They were arguing and breaking things, and I, kind of, freaked out and broke their door down?”  
He ignores Mira’s amused snort.  
“Then Kai came down, and they, like- yelled at him, not even for that long but it’s not the normal kind of parents yelling at kids. They sounded so- I don’t know, mean? Hateful? I didn’t want him to sleep there, so I invited him here, but he says it’s always like that, and…”

“...And, since these AIs are based on our memories, he might mean that literally,” Mira finishes for him, and Adam nods. He feels better about it already, seeing Mira go still and contemplative- he shouldn’t be happy she’s worried, but at least he’s not the only one, now.

“I knew it wasn’t great,” Mira starts, “but I didn’t think it was _this_ bad--”

Just then, Kai opens the door slowly, slipping one leg into the room.

“Are you ready for this _fashion_ _sensation?_ ” 

He enters the room while Mira cheers and whoops, and it’s, well.  
Anti-climatic. 

Mira’s pyjama pants are yellow and seafoam green, with ornamental and complex-looking patterns all around, while Adam’s shirt is a very plain grey and almost hangs off Kai’s shoulder. It doesn’t match, no, but it’s neither as disastrous nor as grand as Mira and Kai are both pretending it is.  
Mira is wearing grey jogging pants from Adam’s closet- it might actually be the same set as Kai’s shirt- and a neon-green tank top, and both her and Kai pretend it’s the latest of haute couture. 

Adam smiles fondly and shakes his head to show how silly he thinks they’re being. 

Kai boos, and Mira heckles him.  
  
“Look at mr. Karate Kid, not even in his PJ’s!”  
“Yeah, Karate Kid, put on the jammies!”  
“Do a flip!”  
“Yeah, do a flip!”

They yell at him all the way into the bathroom, where he changes, and he hears their hyper-active babbling through the bathroom door. 

When he catches sight of himself in the mirror, he’s smiling way too wide for the occasion, and tries hard to dial it down a little.

Here in the bathroom, with only the reflection of himself to judge, he will admit to himself that he’s maybe enjoying himself a bit too indulgently. 

Maybe he likes it when Mira raids his closet with no reservations and flops down on his bed in her pyjamas.

Maybe he likes how Kai’s shirt hangs off him, and maybe it gives him an odd and almost painful feeling to notice how much smaller and thinner Kai is than him.

Maybe he’s having too much fun just watching the two of them interact with each other; maybe it’s not an accident that they’re wearing Adam’s clothes, from the same set, as if it brings them closer to him, somehow.

Maybe, maybe. Maybe you should stop being weird, Adam, and just let everyone enjoy the slumber party, he chastises his reflection.

When he rejoins his room, Kai and Mira are in the middle of a giggle-fit, on his bed. The door’s barely even closed before they start acting like he’s a runway model, even though he’s wearing the most normal set of clothes of all of them.

“ _Classic_ set of sleeping shorts going on here, very _tres chic_ , showing off those legs-”  
“You’d think that hair would look like it takes work, but no, that’s just _actually_ his hair, it _is_ that fluffy-”  
“Wait, really?”  
“-giving a very good contrast to his also black shirt, yes people, he is playing a safe game-”

“Are you fashion critics or sports commentators?” Adam asks as he walks, _normally_ , towards his bed. Mira and Kai don’t move, and only get louder as he gets closer.

“-no Hollow logo on this shirt because we’re not doing _that_ anymore, totally last season-”  
“-he’s going in for a hard-ball, oh no, look at that offense, but _wait_ \- player Mira enters the game!” 

The commentary ends when Mira latches onto his waist and bodily hauls him into the bed- somehow, his agility doesn’t come into play until his back hits the mattress and Mira is already in fits of laughter, half under him, half on top.

Kai is laughing too, helpless and hiccupy, and Adam’s offended huffs and puffs somehow end up as laughter, too. 

Just as Adam starts wiggling to get loose, Mira’s whining be damned, Kai flops on top of both of them, disregarding any personal space. 

“Wow, what a slumber party experience. You guys run a tight ship.”

Adam makes the mistake of looking at Mira while trying to avoid looking at Kai, and she grins at him like a cat, no doubt aware of how much he doesn’t actually want to get up. 

“Don’t give us a review yet, Kai. We have nails to paint, pillows to pelt, and gossip to--! Uh, gossip?” 

She trails off awkwardly, but Kai starts snickering again, and she joins him. They start off on another tangent about everything they want to get done, and even if they had all night they wouldn’t get through half of it. Not with how they’re still lying on Adam’s bed, chattering away and wasting time, but Adam doesn’t protest. 

Kai’s elbow is digging into his ribs, Mira’s arm is trapped under his back, the two of them are talking inches away from him, and they're in his house, safe and happy.

It feels much more at home, now.

  
In the morning, Kai and Mira eat all the waffles, and Adam watches them with a plate of toast that he made, himself.


End file.
